CS Weekly Archive > DVD of the Day > 02/11/05

If Only MacGyver's Writers
Had His Ingenuity...

by scott castle

MacGyver: The Complete First Season

Thackary Pallor, Terry Nation, Dennis Folley, Stephen Downing, Joe Viola, Judy Burns, Stephen Kandel, James Schmerer, Larry Alexander, Douglas Brooks West, David Abramaowitz, Paul Savage, Mike Marvin, Jerry Ludwig, Hannah Louise Shearer, David Ketchum, Tony DiMarco, Don Mankeiwitcz, Larry Gross, and Fred McKnight
Created by Lee David Zlotoff

Angus MacGuyver (Richard Dean Anderson) is a freelance problem solver who helps the U.S. government out on delicate matters of an extraordinary nature. While MacGuyver cleverly employs his knowledge of science and engineering with great ingenuity, the staff of writers who concoct his adventures fail to live up to their protagonist's abilities. Half of the episodes start with Indiana Jones-style teasers completely unrelated to the action of the actual episode and are seemingly appended only to make up the running time (and some are even written by writers different than those that penned the episodes), while almost every installment relies on adventure television plots that were stale in the late Sixties. An overdose of folksy narration from MacGuyver insures that viewers don't even need to watch the screen to follow the action, and an excellent character is completely let down by the material that surrounds him. Creator Lee David Zlotoff is not credited on the pilot (nor anywhere else in the series) and the DGA sanctioned pseudonym, Alan Smithee, suggests that there were serious creative differences on the pilot. The absence of any supplementary material is an unfortunate oversight that could have shed light on a lackluster show with an ingenious concept and production background that might be a more interesting story than those portrayed on screen.

MacGyver: The Complete First Season
Paramount Home Video
Not rated; 1045 min.
$38.99

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